Battery wear level / artifacts

iNonEntity

Estimable
Sep 1, 2014
19
0
4,570
I'm looking into a laptop and the screen has a lot of artifacts all over the place, but only sometimes. It's really random because sometimes even at startup it will be either completely clear or almost unreadable. Sometimes it will be fuzzy and gradually worsen then clear up and fuzz up again over time. If I unplug the battery it seems to terribly worsen and so I figured it had to do with that. In HWMonitor the laptop's temperatures run fine, but the battery's wear level is at 42% (edited: realized my conversion was off haha) Should I replace the battery or is something else the problem? 42% seems ludicrously high
 

Hlsgsz

Commendable
Feb 29, 2016
158
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1,710


The battery itself has nothing to do with it. It's probably the connection between the video card and the screen. These tend to fail from opening and closing the lid. You are probably changing something physically related to that connection when removing/plugging the battery. I would open the laptop up and check that out.
The battery is not required to run a laptoop. Ergo, it'a absence cant be at fault for poor display.
 

iNonEntity

Estimable
Sep 1, 2014
19
0
4,570
But it will off and on change without any physical interaction, I could believe it's the GPU being faulty but it is at 0% utilization and can run games without any artifacts when the screen is clear. The only correlation I can find is between the battery levels or voltage. Are you sure?
 

iNonEntity

Estimable
Sep 1, 2014
19
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4,570


Well right now it's not making any difference (I think because the battery level is low atm) but when I tested yesterday it would have more artifacts when on a lower brightness. When the screen was clear it didn't change regardless of brightness
 

device_node

Commendable
Feb 23, 2016
12
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1,570
I had a GPU on a Toshiba that would fail in this manner from heat. Turned out it had a poor heat sink and a fabric screen over the vent holes which inevitably became clogged up. I got replacement motherboards on Ebay for a while, and replaced the MoBo for this cause about 5 times (a couple of the replacements themselves were bad). I eventually gave up and got another laptop.
 

iNonEntity

Estimable
Sep 1, 2014
19
0
4,570


I thought I checked this but apparently it was only the motherboard and processor's temps I saw. The GPU has no temp reading, so I instead tested this by waiting until the screen was clear and opening up HD videos. The screen didn't change but eventually did the same gradual decay into artifacts and whatnot, but would clear up again too. So unless the heat is somehow dissipating on it's own in random bursts, I don't think that's the cause. While I was testing this, I noticed the GPU usage remained a steady 0% at maximum value over an hour. Sooo... Possibly the GPU is dead? But it's also reading a constant 100MHz as well... And the laptop can't be running on the CPU's integrated graphics because the TL-58 has none. I have no idea what's going on honestly, but I have a feeling that the worn out battery isn't supplying the necessary voltage to power the screen properly. I'll just have to see if the voltage does go up when the screen clears. If it does correlate I think I'm going to buy a new battery and see if the problem is resolved :/ What a headache this laptop is
 

device_node

Commendable
Feb 23, 2016
12
0
1,570


The battery literally, unequivocally has NOTHING to do with it. Don't waste your money. A "worn out battery" only, only, only affects runtime off the A/C adapter. If you have an A/C adapter plugged in, the battery is completely irrelevant. Even if you don't, for the period the laptop will run, right up until power runs out and it winks off, your circuitry will have full and ample power.

Batteries operate at approximately 11 volts (3s Li-Ion/Li-Poly) and the circuitry of the laptop runs at 5V, 3.3V, 1.8V, 1.2V, etc. all managed by switching power converters and precision regulators. A worn-out battery will NOT affect laptop operation except for the laptop shutting down sooner than it would have with a new battery.

Again, save your money and use it toward a new laptop.
 

device_node

Commendable
Feb 23, 2016
12
0
1,570
OK, that being said, I just looked at your YouTube video where you plugged and unplugged the A/C Adapter. Curious. Power management circuitry changes many different settings when you go off A/C, so it could be some relationship like that. Or a failure in the power supplies.

I just can't believe it could have something to do with a battery. The battery would have to be emitting some kind of noise, like a loose terminal, not just a matter of "wear level".

Have you tried shaking the laptop when it's on battery power and see if that affects it?

If it's a replaceable battery, have you tried cleaning the battery contacts with alcohol (battery and laptop sides)?
 

iNonEntity

Estimable
Sep 1, 2014
19
0
4,570


It does change though, on a scale between 9V when the screen is glitching and 16.4 when it's clear. It might not be the cause but it does have a direct relation. Regardless, it's a $22 swap out and the laptop needs a new battery anyway, and I can't just save up for a new one because it isn't mine. They refuse to buy another one. I have tried shaking it (out of frustration, not trying to fix it...) and have cleaned it thoroughly. Not inside the casing though, I don't like opening laptops that aren't mine because of bad experiences.